Graduate Milestones

Ph.D. Program

1st year:

  • New students should find a potential advisor in their first quarter;
  • Take and plan required courses, in consultation with the potential advisor; and
  • In consultation with the potential advisor, consult the relevant sub-discipline road-map(s) and establish an individualized timeline for GP1 and GP2 progress.
    • If applicable, and in consultation with your advisor, begin carrying out the data collection or fieldwork necessary for the completion of the first generals paper.

2nd year: 

  • Continue taking required coursework, in consultation with advisor;
  • Short (~10-minute) presentation of first generals paper to the department (typically, a colloquium slot will be reserved for this purpose);
  • Write proposal for and begin work on the second generals paper.
    • If applicable, carry out the data collection or fieldwork necessary for the completion of the second generals paper.
  • Complete the first generals paper;
    • When the first generals paper is approved by the whole committee,  the student should email the GPCs (linggpc@uw.edu) and cc the Administrator (lingadmn@uw.edu) and GPA (phoneme@uw.edu) and the student’s committee chair on the email. The GPC then updates the progress status, and the Administrator updates the salary eligibility status in the payroll system from Pre MA to PreDoc 1 (if applicable). 

3rd year: 

  • Complete required coursework;
    • Note: By “required courses”, we are referring to the required courses (30 credits) specified here.
    • The graduate school requires that the student have completed 60 credits (some of these credits may be taken the same quarter of the exam). This obviously includes the 30 credits for the required courses specified above. https://mse.washington.edu/student/phd/ge
  • Satisfy the language requirement;
  • Complete the second generals paper;
  • Finalize dissertation committee;
  • Take general exam:
    • The student in consultation with the committee has the option of just defending one main paper that is directly related to the forthcoming dissertation. The committee in consultation with the student decides whether the student is to defend both GPs or one primary GP.
    • The general exam should include discussion of how the GP(s) will grow into the dissertation.
    • Students need to complete all required courses before their general exam (i.e. before the end of the third year).
    • Both GPs must be approved by the committee before taking the general exam.
    • The pre-exam checklists are found here.

4th year: 

  • Write dissertation proposal (in Autumn, if not included in the general exam);
  • Carry out dissertation research and writing;
    • If applicable, carry out the data collection or fieldwork necessary for the completion of the dissertation.

5th year: 

  • Finish writing the dissertation;
  • Carry out dissertation defense / Final Exam.

Yearly Progress Report

  • In order to ensure timely progress on the above milestones, students complete a yearly progress report form in consultation with their advisor.
    • We will ask students to propose their course schedule for the following year (in addition to answering the questions about what they have done). 
      • This will create a plan that both the student and advisor agree on. 
      • In addition, this allows the TA coordinator to make TA assignments without creating scheduling conflicts.
    • The form will also include a section for input on other scholarly activities and outputs (conference attendance + presentation, papers, grant applications, etc) in order to receive credit / acknowledgment for these as well.
    • The advisor and student meet together to complete the form during the Spring quarter. The advisor is asked to comment at the bottom. The student has a chance to review their advisor’s comments and to provide feedback or request changes. Both parties must agree on a version of this document, to be submitted to the GPC. 
      • A GPC can be called upon to help mediate upon either party’s desire, at any point in the process, or in cases of disagreement.
  • In addition to the yearly progress report: each quarter, there will be a check-in meeting between student and advisor, with the goal of explicitly planning and discussing progress with respect to the graduate milestones.
    • Upon either party’s desire, this may take the form of an explicit written agreement.

Grant Applications

  • Graduate students are expected to seek external funding every year, starting in the second year.
    • Identifying venues and iterating through multiple drafts of grant applications should be done in advance with consultation of their advisor.
    • What counts as “external funding” may be found on the current graduate student FAQ page.
  • Year-long SA appointments (e.g. for teaching a pro-seminar class) and year-long lead TAs (both of which are secured in advance for at least an entire year) do not have to apply for external funding as a special case, since they would not be applying for that funding in good faith.
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